This disclosure relates to a tonneau cover. Roll-up style tonneau covers are well known and many variations of these tonneau covers are available. The most popular tonneau covers include four main elements: (1) a large piece of flexible material, such as vinyl; (2) a plurality of cross-members attached to the piece of flexible material; (3) a frame that mounts to a vehicle around the load-carrying bed of the vehicle; and (4) a tensioner or release latch mechanism.
Known roll-up style tonneau covers suffer from at least two problems. First, tensioner devices in these known tonneau covers are bolted to the pickup truck and remain in place after the tonneau covers is rolled up. These tensioner devices are visually unattractive and tend to collect dirt, mulch, gravel, and many other things typically carried in the bed of a pickup truck. This can result in malfunctioning of the tensioner device and is inconvenient for the operator of the vehicle to clean. Releasing the tonneau cover can also be difficult. Known tonneau covers include release cables positioned on opposite sides of the pickup truck bed that each must be grabbed and pulled to release the cover from the vehicle body.